The Protectors
by Miss-unperfect but trying
Summary: The world of Farwaygrove is even worse trouble than ever. The current overlord Durka has the land doomed for death. But there is four. Four who can control the elements with their minds, four who can save Farwaygrove from the hands of Durka or four who will cause the demise of a once beautiful land. Rated T for strong language, implied adult themes and scenes of violence.
1. The escapers

"Bring forth the child!" Durka yelled loudly, his voice echoing through the marble hall. He sat up on the black wooden thrown with red velvet cushioning starring bellow at his guards. His hands were clenched so right that his knuckles had gone white and a bright purple vein was popping out of his hand.

Two armed soldiers holding a young boy up by his arms. His legs that weren't touching the ground were kicking around in frustration.

"Drop the boy!" Durka ordered. They dropped the boy roughly and he landed with an _'oof'_. "State your name child!"

The boy didn't answer and angrily rubbed his sore arms. "Your name!" Durka repeated angrier.

"Beck." The boy answered angrily.

"Beck? Beck what!"

"Don't get angry, Sir. The boy is an orphan. He doesn't possess a last name." One of the soldiers said quietly.

"Silence!" Durka screeched angrily and black lightning shit from his hand knocking the soldier down. Beck looked up at Durka with fear. He attempted to run but the other soldier grabbed him. Beck looked up at Durka, just by his look it was obvious that he wasn't a force to reckon with.

He had long hair, as dark as night slicked back off his face. His right eye was covered with a black leather eye patch but peaking from the top and bottom of the patch as long pink line could be seen. He had a dimple in his square chin which was covered by a triangular shaped beard. He was wearing a leather shirt with the collar bedazzled. Along the middle of the shirt was several large round silver buttons engraved with Celtic cymbals. He wore tight dark trousers and knee high house riding boots. His skin was sickly pale and his limbs unnaturally long. His long pointed nails were painted night black and upon his left, middle finger was a sliver ring with a large square red diamond in the middle.

"Quit starring boy! Are you or are you not the peasant with the affinity for air?" Durka yelled. Beck nodded meekly. "Show me." He ordered.

Beck lifted a scrawny tanned arm causing the sleeve of his worn out cotton shirt to fall to his elbow. He swished his arm softly, knocking over a stand for holding ceremonial candles.

"Perfect." Durka mused and a sick smile painted onto his cold face. "Take him to the others!" Durka yelled abruptly and left his throne.

Two soldiers dragged the weak boy down several flights of stairs to the underground basement. The smell of rotting food and wet was sickening. Water leaked from the roof and onto the stoned floor. There was a multitude of cells lined up against each other some had men chained up in them others had people leaned up against the cold stone dying. Of course the soldiers didn't care at all. They pulled Beck to the cell at the far right and opened it quickly opened it and aggressively tossed him inside the cell.

Three curious faces looked up at him. The soldiers slammed the door shut behind Beck causing him to jump. The three other faces looking at him seemed the same age as Beck.

The first one Beck saw was a petite girl with bright red hair and dark brown eyes filled with fear. She seemed of high class since she wore one of the richest gowns Beck had ever seen. It was ruby red with ruffles around the sleeves and hem of the dress. It had lighter red flaps at the side of her dress accenting the hips she barely had. But judging by the outfit again it seemed that she was in her a while since there was a multitude of tears and scratches on the rich silk material.

The second Beck saw was a boy no older than himself. He seemed of common wealth, enough to feed him enough and give him decent clothing. He had on a white shirt and a green vest on over it. He wore puffy pants of the same color but didn't have any shoes on displaying his dark skinned feet which had gone rough and crackled, though not nearly as bad as Beck's. He had rich brown eyes and dreaded hair down to his chin.

The last one in the cell was another girl. She wore the typical outfit for a female child slave working at the manor, which consisted of a short loose-flowing black skirt and a white blouse. Her knotty black hair was tied back in a bun. Around her wrists and ankles were broken shackles and at the back of her legs Beck could make out irritated skin from lash marks.

"Way to go, now we'll never get out!" The black haired girl lashed out standing up from were she was huddled in the corner. She started to push Beck against the rusted metal cell.

"Jade, relax." The boy said pulling 'Jade' off of Beck. "You know he had to, or he would've been fed to Sparky." André said rubbing her pale arm in an attempt to calm her down.

"That ridiculous beast does not have a name so don't start giving him one!" Jade snapped at him before returning to her corner.

"Hi I'm Cat!" The red haired girl announced happily from were she sat on the wooden bed hanging off the wall.

"Em.. hey I'm Beck." Beck said awkwardly.

"Well Beck thanks to you we'll never get out of this hell hole." Jade snapped. André shot her a glare but Jade remained unfazed.

"Guys we gotta calm down." André said loudly. Jade rolled her crystal blue eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Were are you from Beck?" Cat asked chirpy unlike the other two.

"Everywhere sorta. I'm an orphan." Beck said scratching at his arm.

"Ooh, so is Jade." Cat said joyfully as if not having parents was something to celebrate.

"No! I have parents!" Jade barked at her from her corner.

"Yeah but you never got to see them for like six years." Cat murmured. "You can sleep here Beck." Cat said with a smile pointing to the other wooden bed bellow hers.

"That's my bed!" André argued.

"André don't be rude we have guests." Cat hushed him in a very mother like tone.

"Cat he isn't a guest, he's a cellmate." Jade explained dully, her voice being droned out by the fact that her head was hurried in her bony knees.

"It's fine I don't need a bed." Beck said with a fake smile.

"How gentleman like." Cat swooned and put the back of her hand up to her forehead pretending to faint. Jade rolled her eyes and André huffed.

"So why are you all here?" Beck asked sitting down in the corner opposite the wooden bunk beds.

"Same as you, idiot!" Jade snapped.

"You guys control air?" Beck asked confused. His mentor had told him that he was the only one with the power to control air left alive.

"No we complete the unity." Cat laughed. "Your the only air master out there."

"So if your not air masters what are you?" Beck asked cautiously.

"I want to throw a cinder block at his head, does he not know anything?" Jade asked rhetorically standing up in her corner.

"I have the power of fire, André has the power of earth and Jade has the power of water." Cat explained happily.

"I would've thought of Jade as more of a fire kinda gal." Beck laughed. Jade folded her arm and rolled her eyes.

"I have the power to squish you with a whale, don't push me." She warned.

"Not when we're in this cell." André grunted.

"Why not?" Beck asked confused. Surely if her powers were nearly as strong as Beck's she could call the ocean that was only across from the castle.

"The cell is magic proof." Cat sighed sadly.

"Well why are they even keeping us here anyway?" Beck asked confused.

"He really knows nothing about the prophecy." Jade told André loudly.

"What prophecy?" Beck asked expected of Jade's grunt.

"Y'know the light and dark prophecy." André said sitting back in his bed,

"No." Beck said stretching out the 'o'.

"The light one is we save Farwaygrove from Durka's wrath." Cat said happily pulling at the ruffles on her dress.

"Or the dark on, we cause or own demise." Jade finished.

"What makes us so special? I'm only thirteen!" Beck exclaimed.

"Beck we're the unity. We're going to save Farwaygrove." Cat announced happily.

"Shh, Cat!" Jade scolded angrily.

"Durka has to wait for all of us to turn thirteen before he can take action with his plan." André informed.

"That's good. How old are you three?" Beck asked hopeful.

"Me and André are both thirteen. Jade is twelve." Cat said calmly instead of her before bubbly attitude.

"When do you turn thirteen?" Beck asked Jade.

"Next week." Jade mumbled toying at her broken shackles.

"Then we have to work fast at getting out of here." Beck said and started to kick at the metal bars surrounding three of the four cell walls.

"It's no use Beck. We've already tried." André said.

"Well I amn't going to rot here." Beck spat and shouldered the gates.

"You heard André, Beck. Durka's men will let us out next week and we'll have our memory's washed and be forced to be his soldiers in the battle front." Jade informed not once moving from her corner.

"You said the magic never worked inside the cell. Have you ever tried outside the cell?" Beck asked sticking a scrawny tanned arm out.

"There is no use using magic outside of the cell when you have the power of earth." André groaned.

They watched as Beck swished his hand and the master key fell off it's hook by the stairway. He then swayed his hand up and the keys lifted off the ground. He motioned for the keys to come forward to him and the slowly bobbled in the air towards the very last cell. The other prisoners watched and cheered Beck on as he did so. Beck finally grabbed the keys and undid the lock on the door.

"You would think if they're smart enough to magic proof the cell they'd be smart enough to stop us from doing that!" Cat laughed and jumped down from her wooden bed.

"You guys wait by the stairs, I'm going to let everyone else out." Beck ordered.

"What are you suicidal? There is a million guards up there, you're lucky there isn't one up here." Jade snapped angrily finally standing up from her corner.

"I know what I'm doing just go!" He said. Jade glared at him and ran up the stairs with the others. She heard the clanks from each lock falling to the floor and more and more prisoners making there way to the stair way slowly pushing the others closer to the top.

"Beck what's your big master plan now?" Jade asked angrily as she began to be smashed between André and the stone wall.

"Just open the doors and let the others run." He yelled. Jade opened the door slowly and hid behind it along with Cat and André as she did so. The hungry and tired prisoners ran quickly through the castles ground floor looking desperately for an exit before they were going to be recaptured and more than likely executed.

"You're mad boy." Jade whispered shaking her head of black curls.

"I know someone who can help us you just have to trust me." Beck whispered. "Hold on." He ordered in a hushed tone and grabbed onto Cat's and Jade's wrists. André grabbed onto Jade and a large white cloud formed beneath them. It lifted them out of the door and up higher and higher.

"Beck we're going to crash through the ceiling!" Jade yelped shielding her head. André winced and Cat let out a shriek, but they all went silent when they past through the solid roof with ease. Beck maneuvered the cloud and landed them safely outside the castle gates.

"Oh my. Oh my god." Cat repeated rocking back and forth once the landed.

"Relax Cat. We're fine." Beck said kneeling down and rubbed the red heads back comforting her.

"I think you spoke too soon. Run!" Jade yelled fear evident in her eyes.

The three others turned there heads around and let out loud fearful screams and ran as fast as the could into the misty, dead forest.


	2. The Healers

André Harris hissed with pain as the raven haired girl washed out his open wound. Blue sapphire spirals covered the palm of her hand from were the clear water emerged. She wasn't being gentle with the water she released instead the water emerged in huge gushes drenching the ground beneath André. He lay shirtless on his stomach against the forests murky floor that was filled with needles from pine trees and puddles from was a large gash on André's back from where he had roughly landed when he had tumbled down the hill. His ankle was braced using a torn off bit of fabric from Cat's red dress.

They had barely outrun the army of soldiers Durka had sent after them by running down a hill so steep it should counted as a cliff. The horses were too afraid to venture down hill and rightly so because the four children each fell and hurt themselves, André being the worded offender. Cat was fine for the most part only a sprained arm from the awkward position she landed in, lying on her arm. Beck had hit his head off of the same rock that pierced André and was having his head wrapped by Cat. Jade was barely hurt at all only more bruises and scratches to add to her collection.

André though was terrible, he landed on a pointed rock and Beck repeatedly told him he was lucky it didn't impale him. It did leave an awfully deep gash which Jade was trying to clear from any dirt before she wrapped it.

"Be careful." André scolded as another dose of ice cold salt-water washed through his cut stinging him. He hissed again.

"Hold still I'm almost done." Jade promised. She closed her long white fingers down over the palms of her hands. The blue swirl soon disappeared leaving behind none of it's gorgeous light but instead droplets of water running down Jade's fingers. She dried her hands against her filthy skirt and picked up the make shift bandages for André. She helped him sit up since he was since light headed and used his grey cardigan to put pressure on the cut before using more pieces of Cat's dress to keep the cardigan secure.

"How do you feel?" Jade asked once she had everything tightened on him.

"Sore." He mumbled.

"Stop being such a baby you're fine now." Jade groaned and sat cross legged against the tree stump André was once lying down on. "I'm so tired. What time do you say it is?" Jade asked with a yawn and stretched out her skinny arms.

"About 7:30. I'm hungry." Cat informed as she finished off the bandages on Beck's head.

"We won't make it over night. Durka's men will come back for us, we have to keep moving." André grunted and attempted to stand up.

"Sit down soldier. You're still too light headed." Cat ordered him. He groaned but listened to the girl.

"He's right though Cat. Beck how far away is that person you said you knew?" Jade asked looking across at Beck.

"I'd say from here, 2 hours at the least." He guessed and scratched at his back.

"We'll have to go. We don't stand a chance if we don't keep moving." Jade ordered. She helped André up and he wrapped his arm around her neck and the other around Beck's.

"I don't know guys. Why can't Beck just fly us over?" Cat suggested with a fake smile, she knew very well why they couldn't.

"Yeah and be caught for using that strong magic." Jade snapped sarcastically.

"You used magic to clean André." Cat argued.

"Different story." Jade mumbled. Cat rolled her eyes at her.

"Cat you know Durka has a Seri who will sense us if we use magic, Jade had to use hers to help me, you saw how bad I was." André said as he was dragged slowly with half of his weight on Beck and Jade's shoulders.

"Yeah but we can move fast with Beck, the soldiers won't be able to catch up." Cat whined as she trudged slowly behind them.

"But they will and then next thing you know they're going to have our memory's washed and become zombies in his stupid army." André snapped. Cat flinched, usually André is the one who is the nicest to her. She tried to act like it didn't bother her.

"Fine but I don't like the idea." She said with her nose in the air.

* * *

"I'm so bored." Cat whined. "Can we do something?" Cat asked with big pleading eyes looking over at the others.

"Like what?" Jade asked with hitched breaths since she had half of André's dead weight on her shoulders.

"How about we play a game?" She suggested joyfully, making a full 360 spin, her arms wide out and her red hair flowing outwards.

"What sort of game?" Beck asked.

"We could play eye spy." Cat noted and used her thumb and index finger to make a circle around her brown eye.

"All there is here is grass and trees." Jade grunted turning down Cat's idea.

"How'd you know I was thinking of trees?" Cat asked in a happy state of shock.

"Why don't we just all get to know each other properly instead of playing a game?" Beck suggested. Jade rolled her crystal blue eyes.

"I already know stuff 'bout André and Jade." Cat argued crossing her tanned arms over.

"Really? What's André's mother called?" Beck asked.

"Well I don't know _everything_." Cat scoffed.

"Exactly, c'mon. I ask you 20 question, you ask André 20 question, André asks Jade 20 questions and Jade asks André 20 questions." Beck nudged. Cat smiled at him and nodded her head.

"I think we're going to have to stop, it's getting dark." Jade noted.

"We're almost there, please just keep going." Beck pleaded.

"I-I can't." Jade panted and dropped André off her shoulders. André attempted to steady himself out but toppled over dragging Beck with him.

Jade pulled her shirt off her shoulder revealing a big blue bruise. "Wow you bruise easy." Beck stated. He helped André up off the forests ferny floor and walked over ti the dark haired girl.

"Not exactly a trait I like." Jade mumbled and rubbed the bruise with her skeleton fingers.

"Did your parents have it?" He asked moving closer to her and pushing her black hair off her shoulders.

"I don't remember. I think my dad might've. I hate him though." Jade snapped.

"How come?" Beck asked curiously. Cat who stood behind Jade scrunched up her face and shook it angrily as if he shouldn't of said it.

"He sold me out. He knew Durka was paying big money to find the four with the affinities so he brought me to his castle when I was only six and he kept me there as a slave until I first proved I could master water." Jade said slowly.

"I'm sorry." Beck muttered awkwardly.

"You didn't sell me Beck, but you DID get me stuck in the dark forests with the biggest and most well trained army after me. Cheers." Jade said sincerely but it grew into sarcasm at the end.

"Em guys." André hissed drawing their attention towards him. "There is someone over there." He hissed in as low a voice as possible.

"We're closer than I thought!" Beck rejoiced and grabbed Jade's hand pulling her towards the man holding the light in the clearing.


End file.
